The Reconstructed School eBook

A school girl assumed the task of looking after all
the repairs in the way of plumbing in the home and,
certainly, was none the worse for the experience.
She is now a dentist and has achieved distinction both
at home and abroad in her chosen profession.
She gained the habit of meeting difficult situations
without abatement of dignity or refinement. The
school, at its best, is a favorable situation for self-education
and the wise teacher will see to it that it does not
decline from this high plane. Only so will its
products be young men and women who need no leading
strings, who can find their way about through the labyrinth
of life and not be abashed. They are the ones
to whom we must look for leadership in all the enterprises
of life, for they have learned how to initiate work
and carry it through to success. That school will
win distinction which makes initiative one of its
big goals and is diligent in causing the activities
of the pupils to reach upward toward the achievement
of this end.

We may well conclude with a quotation from Dr. Henry
van Dyke: “The mere pursuit of knowledge
is not necessarily an emancipating thing. There
is a kind of reading which is as passive as massage.
There is a kind of study which fattens the mind for
examination like a prize pig for a county fair.
No doubt the beginning of instruction must lie chiefly
in exercises of perception and memory. But at
a certain point the reason and the judgment must be
awakened and brought into voluntary play. As a
teacher I would far rather have a pupil give an incorrect
answer in a way which showed that he had really been
thinking about the subject, than a literally correct
answer in a way which showed that he had merely swallowed
what I had told him, and regurgitated it on the examination
paper.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

IMAGINATION

In his very stimulating book, Learning and Doing,
Professor Swift quotes from a business man as follows:
“Modern business no longer waits for men to
qualify after promotion. Through anticipation
and prior preparation every growing man must be largely
ready for his new job when it comes to him. I
find very few individuals make any effort to think
out better ways of doing things. They do not
anticipate needs, do not keep themselves fresh at
the growing point. If ever they had any imagination
they seem to have lost it, and imagination is needed
in a growing business, for it is through the imagination
that one anticipates future changes and so prepares
for them before they come. Accordingly, as a general
proposition, the selection of a man for a vacancy
within the organization is more or less a matter of
guesswork. Now and then an ambitious, wide-awake
young man works into the organization and in a very
short time is spotted by various department managers
for future promotion, but the number of such individuals
is discouragingly small. The difficulty with which